24 February Start of RORC 600

From the little guys yesterday to the big boys in their professionally crewed, carbon masted, performance sail offshore racers today.

We positioned ourselves on a rock perch above English Harbour to watch the start of the RORC (Royal Ocean Racing Club) 600nm race around Antigua, up to St Maarten, down to Montserrat, around Guadeloupe and back to Antigua. There must have been 100 boats in six classes setting off ten minutes apart. The smallest, not that small go off first and the last two to go were the multihulls and the Volvo 70s sleek as racehorses. The winner should be back in 2 days and a few hours.

23 February Mini Globe RTW race

 

The inaugural Mini Globe yacht race began this morning. Fifteen single handed, self built yachts, only 5.8m long crossed the start line on a year long race around the world. The first leg is from Antigua to Panama. The second from Panama to Fiji, 7200nm, with three of four stops to allow them to take the safest seasonal weather option. The boats left sailing should return to Antigua in a years' time.

5.8m is a tiny boat to cross an ocean in. Our dinghy is 3.1m long. Each boat is built to the same design; wooden frame covered with marine ply and a fibreglass skim. The average speed will be about 5knots and daily distances between 100 to 120nm and they have 24,300nm to sail.

We walked to the top of the hill overlooking the start line at the entrance / exit to Falmouth. One poor guy while having an issue with his sail before the start ran aground on a shallow patch. He managed to wiggle off and flow the fleet out.

Good luck!

19 February Bye bye Dave

Our friend Dave flew back to the UK this evening. It's been lovely to have him around and we hope we made the best of a bad weather situation. David and David have chatted and reminisced about mutual friends, places and past adventures. Captain David is astounded at how many of his contemporaries have sadly passed. Yes, time passes at a different pace for us and we feel fortunate to be able to continue living the adventure, or misadventure.

16 February Rendezvous beach

It's been a full week of rain and strong winds, but with a break in the rain clouds today we managed to fit in an exploratory walk over the headland to the south of Falmouth and onto Rendezvous beach. A new walk for us turning left from Catamaran Marina, through housing, along a dirt road and then lots of ups and downs to the wave pounded beach. It was too rough to swim today because the beach is open to the large swells that have built over the last week or so.

Our return route took us along another steep and dusty track back to Catamaran marina where it was possible to swim or paddle without fear of being swept off to south America.

14 February Lucky me

 My lucky Valentines day; sushi dinner at the yacht club with not one, but two lovely Davids.

10 February Shirley Heights Lookout

The wind got even stronger yesterday so Dave P and I stayed on board just in case...Dave W took the kayak and had a paddle around the harbour.

We were also resting tired legs before today's adventure and a longer walk from the dinghy dock around the coast to Shirley Heights.

I love this walk although starting from Falmouth instead of English adds a couple of miles to reach the start of the path at Galleon beach. Once at the beach we walked up and around the coastline holding onto our hats for fear they'd be blown off our heads and then the final steep, hot climb up to Shirley Heights Lookout, a 17^th century gun placement now restored as a bar and venue with fantastic views over English and Falmouth Harbours. On a clear day one would be able to see Guadeloupe to the south and Montserrat to the west, but not today. The return path to Galleon beach follows the spine of the hill downwards and only a mile away. Then it was less than 2 miles to the dinghy dock, 2 hot miles.  At the end of the day my feet were sore.

English Harbour

rugged coastline

Christmas cacti

8 February Monks Hill walk

David Woodhead, not Pemberton, is a super fit, long distance cyclist so our walk today from Falmouth village up to 17^th century Fort George (lots of British forts on Antigua) sitting on the bluff above was a mere stroll while the unfit cruisers took a number of 'let's stop and look at the view' breaks!

Once more having David W with us inspired us to go the extra 100m. A disused track through thorn bushes off the main path led us to an abandoned stone tower.  We've seen this tower from the boat and before today hadn't been able to locate the elusive path.  Aided with MapsMe.com with the GPS locater we succeeded. 

Coming back down the track we met the off road cycle club that meets at the 2 Six 8 Brewery and arranged for David to go out with them on the next club evening.

the elusive tower

gateway to Fort George

7 February Middle Ground walk

After spending the day in a car yesterday today was walking. There's a route that starts by the Antigua Yacht Club which takes you to an old English fort overlooking the east side of the channel into Falmouth Harbour along a ridge, past two more ruins of forts, back down to sea level and Berkeley fort and completing the loop back to the dinghy through English Harbour.

entrance into Falmouth Harbour

6 February Guest on board

Yesterday evening David's friend, also called David, from home arrived for a visit. We look forward to taking him sailing around Antigua and up to Barbuda, David W. is looking forward to doing some sailing. However, the weather forecast for the next week says 'no'. A week of winds in the mid to upper 20 knots, frequent squalls and waves close to 3m wouldn't be fun. This is unusual for February. For safety, comfort and to have more opportunities for other activities we have opted to anchor in Falmouth Harbour where we'll have good protection and easy access to the dinghy docks.

Today we went for a long drive around a small island in a rental car. We even went to places that are new to us and in the evening we popped into to the Antigua Yacht Club for dinner with views over the unique collection of super yachts.

the two David's

view over Jolly anchorage

30 January Settling in in Antigua

First job in a new country is to check in with Customs and Immigration. It was straight forward though the paperwork took more than an hour to complete.

Jolly has a large marina and shops, restaurants and one supermarket. Although I thought I had filled the cupboards in Guadeloupe you never know what extra delights you might find.

And a delight I did find in the shape of Waitrose (an upmarket UK store) own label gin at 25% of the cost at home. It would have been rude not to empty the shelves with all that we could carry, after all it doesn't have a drink by date.